Israeli forces continued airstrikes and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip overnight Sunday for the 14th day, killing two extended families in military attacks as the death toll tops 500. Witnesses told Ma'an that an Israeli airstrike leveled a house belonging to the Siyam family in Rafah. Emergency services pulled the bodies of 11 family members from the rubble, including an eight-month-old baby. Nine of the the victims were identified as Sumud Nasser Siyam, 26, Muhammad Mahrous Salam Siyam, 25, Badir Nabil Mahrous Siyam, 25, Ahmad Ayman Mahrous Siyam, 17, Mustafa Nabil Mahrous Siyam, 12, Ghayda Nabil Mahrous Siyam, 8, Sherin Muhammad Salam Siyam, 32, Dalal Nabil Mahrous Siym, 8 months, and Kamal Mahrous Salamah Siyam, 27. Civil defense forces are still working to find survivors under the wreckage. In Khan Younis, 16 members of the Abu Jami family were killed by Israeli shelling. Medics managed to pull 13 bodies from the rubble and identified the victims as Jawdat Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jami, 24, Tawfiq
Ahmad Abu Jami, 5, Hayfa Tawfiq Ahmad Abu Jami, 9, Yasmin Ahmad Salamah Abu Jami, 25, Suheila Bassam Abu Jami, Shahinaz Walid Muhammad Abu Jami, one-year-old, Rayan Abu Jami, 9, an elderly woman Fatima Abu Jami, Rozan Abu Jami, 14, and Ahmad Salhoub, 34, a next door neighbor. The bodies of two children and a woman could not be identified. In al-Nuseirat refugee camp, an airstrike killed a man traveling on a motorcycle at 7:30 a.m., while medics announced the death of two people south of Gaza City. A fisherman, Raed Bardawil, was also killed in Rafah. Diplomatic push Gaza's emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said many of the more than 150 Palestinians killed on Sunday -- the bloodiest day of fighting in Gaza in years -- were women and children. The Security Council held urgent talks on the conflict, expressing "serious concern about the growing numbers of casualties." "The members of the Security Council call for an immediate cessation of hostilities," said Rwandan ambassador
Eugene Richard Gasana, whose country chairs the 15-member council. Late Sunday, the armed wing of Hamas claimed it had kidnapped an Israeli soldier, prompting celebrations in the streets of Gaza City and West Bank towns. "The Israeli soldier Shaul Aaron is in the hands of the Qassam Brigades," a spokesman using the nom de guerre Abu Obeida said in a televised address. Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor denied a soldier had been kidnapped, saying: "Those rumors are untrue." However a spokeswoman for the Israeli military said they were investigating the claim. During the Security Council talks, Palestinian envoy Ryad Mansour called for decisive steps to end the violence, and voiced frustration with what he termed the world body's failure to take a strong stand. "The Council failed again and again to shoulder its responsibility," Mansour told reporters. UN chief Ban Ki-moon was also in Doha where he urged Israel to "exercise maximum restraint". "Too many
innocent people are dying...(and) living in constant fear," he told a news conference in Doha. So far, ceasefire proposals have been rejected by Hamas which has pressed on with its own attacks. The Doctors Without Borders charity urged Israel to "stop bombing civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip", noting the majority of the injured arriving in the al-Shifa hospital were women and children.